Phil Hutchings recalls growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, his parents' involvement in many civic organizations, and attending Howard University. He remembers joining the Nonviolent Action Group (a precursor to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), protesting at the White Rice Inn in Maryland, and working with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. He discusses moving to Newark, New Jersey, to work for SNCC, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and the Newark Community Union Project. He also recalls organizing District of Columbia residents for the March on Washington and witnessing the Newark riots in 1967.

Steven McNichols discussed his childhood in New York City, his mother's illnesses and attending the University of California, Los Angeles in 1958. He became involved in politics through the National Student Federation and National Student Association, and participated in the Freedom Rides, riding a train from Los Angeles, California, to Houston, Texas. He also discusses his work with the Delta Ministry, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and the 1964 Democratic Party convention.

The oral history consists of five digital files: 2011.174.59.1a, 2011.174.59.1b, 2011.174.59.1c, 2011.174.59.1d, and 2011.174.59.1e.

Mildred Pitts Walter discusses her early life in Louisiana, attending Southern University, and moving to Los Angeles in 1944. Pitts recalls meeting Earl Walter whom she married two years later, her work with Earl who headed the Los Angeles chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) from 1951 to 1963, CORE pickets of housing developers in Los Angeles, and her work as a clerk in the LA school district while getting her teaching credentials. She also discusses her career writing over 20 books for children, her work with a national association of nurses to develop culturally sensitive training, marching in the Soviet Union for peace, her ideas about civil rights and human rights.

Reverend Dr. Amos Brown discusses his childhood in Jackson, Mississippi and meeting Medgar Evers, who quickly became his mentor. Brown was a leader in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as a teenager, leading the Jackson chapter and then the whole state Youth Council and traveling with Mr. Evers across the country to attend a national conference. He was asked to leave his high school for making comments to the Cleveland Plain Dealer about unequal schools for blacks, and remembers his participation in a 1961 Freedom Ride, his travel to Africa as part of Operation Crossroads Africa, and his work at Third Baptist Church on various social causes.

Basketball player William "Bill" Russell remembers his childhood in Louisiana and Oakland, California, in the 1940s. After winning two Final Fours with the University of San Francisco, he won an Olympic gold medal and an NBA championship playing for the Boston Celtics, one of thirteen Russell would win, including eight in a row. Russell had a difficult relationship with the sports media in Boston, but a better one with his Celtics teammates. He defends the organization as progressive on racial matters (as opposed to the Red Sox) and describes a post-retirement reconciliation with Boston that resulted in considerable Red Sox support for his mentoring organization and a statue of him, erected in 2013.

The Hon. D'Army Bailey describes growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, the influence of the Crump political machine in city politics, and his involvement with the Memphis NAACP at an early age. He talks about his participation in the civil rights activism as a student at Southern University, for which he was ultimately expelled. Bailey describes his move to Clark University in Massachusetts, where he became involved in the Northern Student Movement. After discussing his time spent at Boston University Law School, Bailey talks about a series of jobs he had related to civil rights and legal services, including serving as the director of the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council (LSCRRC). Bailey also describes his career in California as a Berkeley City Councilman, his recall from that post, and his subsequent move back to his hometown of Memphis, where he has served as a lawyer, judge, and founder of the National Civil Rights Museum.

Elmer Dixon discusses his childhood in Chicago, Illinois and Seattle, Washington, where he marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., and heard Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) leader Stokely Carmichael speak. At 17 he met Black Panthers Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in Oakland and established, with his brother Aaron Dixon as Defense Captain, the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party. Dixon discusses his work with the Panthers, the survival of several of the programs he started, including a health clinic, his work after the Panther chapter closed down in 1978, and his current position as director of an executive consulting firm specializing in diversity issues.

The oral history consists of six digital files: 2011.174.78.1a, 2011.174.78.1b, 2011.174.78.1c, 2011.174.78.1d, 2011.174.78.1e, and 2011.174.78.1f.

Rick Tuttle, Ph. D. describes his family background and when he first became aware of the sit-in movement and the Freedom Rides when he was a student at Wesleyan University. As a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), he was recruited to join the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1963 and went to Greenwood, Mississippi, to work on voter registration drives. He also briefly spied on white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan meetings. After being driven out of Mississippi by threats, he joined the Chatham County Crusade for Voters in Savannah, Georgia. Tuttle describes being arrested in Savannah for disturbing the peace and the subsequent trial. Tuttle discusses the work he did after leaving the Movement: as the comptroller in Los Angeles he helped to bring an end to segregation at private clubs and participated in the anti-apartheid movement.

Willy Siegel Leventhal discusses his childhood in California, his experiences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the 1960s, and his involvement in the Summer Community Organization and Political Education Project (SCOPE). Leventhal describes what it was like to be a Jewish child in a mostly Catholic community and how his childhood experiences informed his later activism and identity. Baseball was especially important to him, as he witnessed the first Jewish and African American ballplayers desegregate the Major Leagues. Leventhal became active in SCOPE during his first year at UCLA, after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., visited campus to recruit students. Leventhal describes the SCOPE training in Atlanta, and he shares his memories of living and working in Macon and Americus, Georgia.

The oral history consists of four digital files: 2011.174.83.1a, 2011.174.83.1b, 2011.174.83.1c, and 2011.174.83.1d.

Gloria Claudette Grinnell recounts her participation in the sit-in movement in Richmond, Virginia, when she was a student at Virginia Union University. She describes her family's history on the East Coast and explains how she and her mother ended up in San Francisco. She discusses her decision to move from California to attend Virginia Union. She describes the sit-in movement that she joined in 1960. She discusses returning to California and her career with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Dr. Clarence B. Jones shares memories from his work as a legal advisor and speechwriter for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In particular, he describes his significant contributions to the "I Have a Dream" speech, which King delivered at the March on Washington in 1963. Jones also describes his early life living in a Philadelphia home for indigent black orphans and foster children, because his parents, who were both domestic workers, could not afford to provide for him. Jones talks about his education at Columbia University, his training as a classical clarinetist, and some of his early encounters with leftist politics while in New York. Jones discusses the death of his mother and the profound effect it had on him. He describes his time spent in the military during the Korean War. Other topics discussed in the interview include Jones's marriage to Anne Norton, his studies at Boston University Law School, and his move to California to become an entertainment lawyer.

The oral history consists of six digital files: 2011.174.95.1a, 2011.174.95.1b, 2011.174.95.1c, 2011.174.95.1d, 2011.174.95.1e, and 2011.174.95.1f.

Luis Zapata describes his childhood in Orange County, California, and how he came to join the labor movement as a college student at San Jose State University. He discusses the organizing work he did with the United Farm Workers and how he ended up moving to Cleveland, Mississippi, for four years where he organized for the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union and helped to register voters with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Zapata also discusses his later involvement in the congressional campaign of Mike Espy as well as his participation in international movements for human rights.